1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hip and ridge shingles for covering the hip and ridge connections on the pitched roof of buildings.
2. Reported Developments
Hip and ridge shingle units are used in the building industry to cover the hips and ridges of various building structures. As such, they are designed with configurations and materials of construction, which allow them to cover angled areas of a roof structure. Several asphalt ridge shingles of various shapes and folding patterns have been proposed for peaks of pitched or gabled roofs to provide for water-impermeability and pleasing appearance. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,294 discloses a tapered asphalt ridge cover comprising a plurality of folds perpendicular to, and approximately midway down the longitudinal axis of the ridge cover with a fold at the front and to produce a small lip with asphalt adhesive on the lower surface of the front end. Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,771, discloses a ridge cover with first and second tapered portions in which the cover is formed by folding the unit such that the second tapered portion overlaps the first tapered portion.
Folding of roof ridge shingles tends to create stress and breakage along fold lines especially when the roof ridge shingles are installed in cold weather. U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,711 teaches a ridge cover composed of a particular composition containing a flexibility adhesive in which the roofing sheet is folded back on itself twice in the intermediate portion of the sheet in order to form a thickened portion midway the length of the sheet with inner sections extending forwardly and rearwardly from the thickened portion. The ridge cover further comprises a T-shaped slit extending through the thickened portion of the unit.
The present invention does not utilize folding of the hip and ridge roofing shingles and for that reason cracking or breaking the shingles during cold weather installation is eliminated.